Solicitor

E.L. CLEMENTS, III

Edgar L. “Ed” Clements, III, was born and raised in Florence County. His father is Edgar Edgar L. Clements, Jr., retired from Seaboard Coastline Railroad and his mother is Gwendolyn Weatherly Clements, retired from Sears Roebuck and Company.

Ed graduated from West Florence High School. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Francis Marion University in 1979, and was then employed as the Director of Youth Ministries at Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter, South Carolina, from 1979 until 1982. From 1983 until 1984, he served as Director of Youth Ministries at First Presbyterian Church, and as Director of Youth Ministries at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Florence from 1985 until 1987.

Ed attended the University Of South Carolina School Of Law, where he received his law degree in May of 1990. He worked as the Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable John H. Waller, Jr., Resident Circuit Court Judge for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit, and now Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. Ed then worked with the law firm of Saleeby and Cox, managing their Florence office until elected Solicitor for the Twelfth Judicial Circuit for Florence and Marion Counties in November of 1998, taking office on January 13, 1999. He is now in his third term as Solicitor.

Solicitor Clements serves on the Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Board. He was appointed to the Magistrate’s Court Advisory Board by the Honorable Jean Hoefer Toal, Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court. He was the former Chairperson of the Statewide Truancy Task Force for Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum and Director of the Department of Juvenile Justice, William Byars. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Francis Marion University in the Political Science Department. In 2003, he was named Alumnus of the Year for Francis Marion University and also Solicitor of the Year by the South Carolina Commission on Prosecution Coordination. Solicitor Clements is a member of the South Carolina Bar Association and on the Board of Directors of the National District Attorney’s Association.

Ed was a Dixie Youth baseball coach and a basketball coach with the Florence YMCA and has served as the middle school basketball coach and assistant football coach at the Kings Academy where he is president of the Booster Club.

Ed is the father of two sons, Zac Clements, and Ben Clements. Ed is a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Florence, South Carolina, where he participates in the Music Ministry.